By Rev Caro Field
Whoa, Wednesday’s church council meeting was probably the wildest and most exciting I’ve experienced in a long time.
Settle in, this is a story …
Our Chin brothers and sisters of the Tasmanian Chin Christian Church are currently hosting a retreat/conference for 23 pastors from the Australian Chin Christian Church from across Australia.
Late on Wednesday afternoon I had a complex text message conversation with the lovely Ngun, our main contact from the TCCC, about their booking to use the church, and manoeuvring around the fact that our church council normally meets in the church.
What eventuated was an invitation for our church council to join the fellowship dinner with the Chin pastors: dinner at 3.30pm.
This was the first time that I’d heard any details about this event, so I was able to find out about it, and also let Presbytery Chairperson Rohan Pryor know, as it might make a good photo opportunity with the visitors.
So, we sorted it all out, and I said I’d come early to meet the visiting pastors, so from about 3.30pm on Wednesday our church hall was full of people feasting on spectacular food.
Our church council meeting was due to start at 4.30pm, but a few of us came early to join the feast, at least for a little while.
Pastor Tial herded all the visiting pastors into a photo along with me, Chris and Di from our church council.
Now, you need to know, dear readers, that the TCCC is currently on a journey to be formally recognised as a faith community of the Uniting Church.
One of the steps in that journey is to formalise their relationship via a Memorandum of Understanding with the Launceston North Uniting Church and the Presbytery of Tasmania, as they will be under the auspices of the LNUC in relation to the structure and ordering of the church, and also under the pastoral oversight of the Presbytery.
All parties had agreed to sign the MOU, but hadn’t yet put pen to paper.
So, Rohan had this bright idea. We had all three parties present under the one roof, so why not do it now?
We also had leaders from Chin churches across the country, so what a great cloud of witnesses.
So, Rohan bolted to his office to print out three copies of the MOU document, and we gathered in the church with the Chin pastors and explained the history of the TCCC-LNUC relationship and the purpose of the agreement, we offered prayers of thanks, and we signed, in triplicate.
Such a joyful moment (I even shed a tear or two).
The next step in the process will be for the Presbytery, at its meeting in November, to consider a formal proposal to officially recognise the TCCC as a faith community of the UCA.
Bring it on
Rev Caro Field is Launceston North Uniting Church Minister